The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

Overall Rating: 8 out of 10

Isabel, aka Belly's, life revolves around the summer. Because during the summer, Belly, her mother and her brother live at Cousins Beach with their longtime friends Susannah, Conrad, and Jeremiah. Conrad and Jeremiah: Belly's best friends, almost to the point of being her brothers. But that wouldn't work, because Belly just so happens to be in love with Conrad. In The Summer I Turned Pretty, Han spins a tale of summer love, friendship, sadness, and growing up into one tear-jerking novel that will leave one craving the sequel, It's Not Summer Without You.
The worst part about this novel was the confusion caused by the random flashbacks. Each chapter is either the present day or a flashback, and if one forgets to read the title of the chapter, they will certainly be confused (which happened to me many, many times)
But otherwise, The Summer I Turned Pretty was an amazing book. The character development was one of the many high points. To start, Belly was about as complex as a real person. I really could connect to Belly when her best friend, Taylor, comes over for the summer and Belly can't help but feeling as if the two parts of her life should not mix. She also feels a little possessive over the boys, and jealous too, when they start paying attention to Taylor. What was great was being able to read about something, and then say, "oh, Jeremiah would do that", or "that's so Conrad". Han creates complex and realistic characters and makes the reader feel as if they had known them for their whole life.
Another great element of this story is the deviation away from the cliche summer romance novel. Sure, Belly loves Conrad. But this story twists even deeper into family problems, a summer fling, the fun of Cousin's beach, as well as an unexpected and heart wrenching illness. When one sees the cover, they might think that inside rests an ordinary teenage girl novel, but don't be fooled, because there is so much more.
The best part of this book, I would have to say, is the emotions. Han conveys emotions so accurately and  deeply that it is impossible not to feel the same thing and get caught up in the story. You'll laugh at loud when Jeremiah sings to Belly during karaoke, feel angry when Conrad forgets Belly's birthday, and cry when... (You'll have to read it to find out that last part)
Overall, a terrific book. Those who enjoyed Just Listen or Keeping The Moon by Sarah Dessen, in addition to Summer Boys by Hailey Abbot will especially love this book.
Coming April 27th: It's Not Summer Without You, the sequel